The ramblings of a middle-aged man

Imperial Barrel Aged Dissonance by Calusa Brewing

I drank this beer the first time I went to Calusa. I loved it. In fact, this is the beer that kind of spawned the idea to begin this blog, even though I didn’t have much use for brown ales at the time. Ironic, right? I received this bottle in a beer trade with a fellow Floridian since I wasn’t living here when the bottle release happened. The date on the bottle reads 5/28/18, so this is about eight months old as I write this now. To be honest, I don’t recall much about this beer on tap, other than I remember LOVING it. So, let’s crack this open and see…

Imperial BA Dissonance pours coffee black in the glass with a thick khaki head that dissipates to a nice ring around the inside edge of the glass. Swirling the beer in the glass reinvigorates the carbonation, reinstating the head momentarily. There’s not much lacing in the glass as it goes down, but the way this beer hugs the glass…you can tell it’s heavy.

It’s sweet on the nose. Aroma is heavy on cinnamon and bourbon. I don’t get any coffee from this yet. So let’s tip it back and see what happens.

Imperial BA Dissonance is nearly a full-bodied beer. It’s very sweet on the tongue. There’s a lot of coconut here, which is interesting and a tad bit of cinnamon. There’s some nice sweet bourbon, but it’s not overly done. Since this is eight months old, there’s no coffee. It’s fallen off quite a bit, I’m sure. There’s a smidge of vanilla as well. Nice! I like this, but it’s really heavy. There’s a boozy burn in the throat as well. I don’t recall it tasting like this on tap, but it was so long ago now (five months!) that I really don’t remember.

Calusa recently had this beer back on tap and it was excellent. The coffee was prevalent and the barrel aging was perfect. Once again, Calusa does not disappoint.